By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 2 June 2015:
Speaking during his government’s . . .[restrict]press conference held in the eastern city of Al-Beida on Sunday, Prime Minister Abdullah Thinni revealed that his government has spent just LD 1.5 bn since taking office eight months ago.
Moreover, Thinni explained that this amount was a bank loan and not public funds.
He revealed that from the first of January 2015, LD 754 million was spent and LD 372 million were spent in 2014. His government still had a balance of LD 300 million in its possession, he confirmed.
Giving further details, Thinni said that LD 30 million was allocated to the army and LD 180 million to the Chief of Staffs.
The Crises Committees for the eastern region received about LD 15 million out of a budgeted LD 51 million Another LD 15 million was given to the Wirshifana Committee, LD 10 to the Zintan Committee, LD 8 to the Rijban Committee and LD 15 million to the Southern region committee.
Thinni said that the government had to deal with the various crises committees despite the fact that the government did not have a crises budget.
The Prime Minister said that his government had requested from the House of Representatives (HoR) a budget of around LD 4 bn in order to deal with the various bottlenecks across the country.
Thinni also explained that a crises budget would free his government from the slow routine of pre-spending approvals from the Audit Bureau, as auditing would be instantaneous or after expenditure.
However, he was keen to assure that all expenditure through the Ministry of Finance had received pre-approval from the Audit Bureau – a state organ that comes under the authority of the HoR.
Thinni also explained that the HoR was fully aware of all government spending in the years 2014-2015.
Despite all the many crises, the government was still able to keep all the utilities going despite a shortage of resources, he added.
The government was also able in these eight months through a budget of just LD 1.5 bn to operate and pay all state-sector salaries in the east, south and in western regions.
The Prime Minister added that his government had obtained LD 300 million which would enable it to pay all wages including April and is on the verge of obtaining wages for May and June to be paid before the start of the fasting month of Ramadan. [/restrict]
